Reading Intervention Program | 6 Minute Solution | Free Downloads

Every day reading is very important for growth. It is hard to find the time but a great solution is this great free program “6 minute solution”.  This program only takes 6 minutes and come with easy to follow instructions. Students can practice their fluency skill everyday!!!

6 Minute Solution Website

There are three different levels, primary, intermediate, and secondary. So whatever grade you teach this is something you can use! This can also go home as homework for parent participation goals. 

The website just has the passages but I will add each full book for you to download. They include all instructions on how to use the program and all passages in each level. 

Click here for K - Third Grade

Click here for Third - Sixth Grade

Click Here for Sixth - Ninth Grade

Click here for a Free Parent Participation Guide

Missing Homework Log | Free Download

I don’t know about you, but I seem to always have students missing homework! If you don’t, you must tell me where you teach, I am so there!!!!

I struggled with how to keep my resource students (any students) accountable for their missing homework assignments with out taking a ton of time out of class when they don’t turn it in. I tried detention slips, missing HW slips that went home to parents etc. you name it, I tried it but it was too much work on my part when it was the students that should be responsible. 

I created a missing HW binder that I keep right next to my turn in bin and as I call students up to turn in their HW if they don’t have it they open the binder, find their name and fill out what they are missing and why. 

WHAT A TIME SAVER!!! Not to mention parents have reacted very well to this since it is not just me telling them their child’s excuse(s) for not having HW, but instead they can now read it in their child’s own handwriting.  

Administrators seem to like this form as well, so if they every get sent with a referral for habitual missing HW, the administrator can see when and how frequent there has been missing assignments. Further more, if they ever get in school suspension or lunch detention it is so quick and easy to see what work they need with out going into your grade book, which you are probably behind on because lets face it, there is so much to grade it blows our minds!!! 

I hope this form works for you as well. If you try it out let me know!! Click Here for the full FREE download. 

Easy Classroom Rewards for Students | FREE Download

As teachers we are all always thinking of ways to promote good behavior, while also discouraging negative behaviors. Rewards and Incentives are a great way to achieve this!

We all have different ways to track our classroom behaviors with color charts, clips, etc. Here are some easy rewards students can earn that really seem to encourage good behavior in my classroom. Some also help to create positive relationships between you and the students, which is proven to help them in the classroom because they will feel more comfortable. It also never hurts to be funny! Students love that! ☺ 

1. A Zombie Ate My Homework  “Homework Pass”
2. Sit at teachers desk for one class period
3. Have a fun lunch with the teacher
4. Computer or IPAD time

These are the ones I have made tickets for. This way student’s held responsible for redeeming them and it has their name, date earned, and teacher initials. Many times students will try to use other student’s rewards or find a blank one but those will not count. 

When my students come in for lunch we usually play an IPAD game talk about what ever it is they are interested in and they keep coming back so it must be working! They also love sitting at my desk while I teach a lesson and in a teacher chair, don’t know why but they love this! Another popular item students choose of course is a homework pass because what student likes homework? I have an obsession with zombies and in my classroom we have Plants vs. Zombies all over, so of course I made a zombie ate my homework pass. 

Hope these ticket rewards are a hit in your classroom too, Click here for the full FREE download! 

             

   

MAZE Reading Passage Generator | Understanding While Silent Reading

At my new school there is a MAZE reading comprehension test the students take and I felt I needed to teach that strategy so they could apply it on a test, but there were no materials to do so.

I searched high and low for MAZE comprehension passages online and found few to none for free. Of course, because I think it is crazy that people expect us poor teachers to pay for these resources I kept searching. 

A co-teacher of mine would write her own but of course not a whole reading passage but a couple sentences for her students to practice on homework. This takes so much time and as teachers, our time is precious! After days of searching I finally found a website that you can paste a fluency passage in and it will generate a MAZE reading passage from it. I felt like the clouds to heaven had parted. I was so excited!

MAZE Passage Generator (Click Here)

 I have been using it to assign as homework and as a weekly practice test. Discussing strategies to picking the correct word and having practice I have seen major improvement in scores.

• What is MAZE comprehension?
• It is a task that measures how well students understand text that they read silently. After the first sentence, words in the reading passage are replaced with the correct word and two distracters. Students choose the word from among the three choices that fits best with the sentence. The MAZE is different from traditional comprehension that is based completely on text. 
• Why test MAZE?
• Capable readers understand syntax of what they read and meanings of words as they are used in the text. Some readers with reading difficulties can’t comprehend what they read well enough to choose words based on semantic and syntactic accuracy.  The MAZE reading assessment identifies these students and measures the changes in their reading behaviors as a result of instruction and practice.

Example of a MAZE scored:

Math Facts Practice | How to Keep Kids Interested

Every week we have Math Masters tests that vary for each grade level.  We all know timed tests and math facts practice can be overwhelming and not too exciting for students. To keep them motivated and interested in practicing these skills I have done a couple things. 

1. Math and Color Website (click here)
• A teacher friend shared this website with me last year and it does have things to buy but also so much for FREE! We all know I love the word FREE!!! Students have to solve the math fact in the box and use to key at the bottom to determine what color the answer tells them to color it. If they solve the facts correctly they will see the picture appear! ☺ This has been so motivating for my students to keep practicing. 

(This is a preview of what you can find on the site linked above)

2. I found a couple different sites that have worksheets that help them practice the same skill in different ways so they don’t get bored. 

http://www.worksheetworks.com/math/basic-operations.html

http://www.softschools.com/math/worksheets/

(These are previews of what you can find on the sites linked above)

Essay/Writing Graphic Outline | Free Download

Since being in resource, I have been tasked with helping my students on their class writing assignments instead of writing skills specifically.

                                        My students would come over with these one page graphic organizers with small boxes and I always thought  “OMG! I don’t even think that is enough space for me as an adult, how is this going to work for them?!” And of course I would see students write in them and when it came to using their G.O. to write their paper they couldn’t even read what they wrote in their G.O. It was a hot mess!

I met with my 5^th grade team to discuss writing and boy were they awesome about letting me change the G.O. my students used so we weren’t spending a whole day trying to decode what their ideas were on the tiny G.O. They even said they wished they could use the same organizer but didn’t have enough copies in the year to do so. ☹  I wish        they could too!!! Maybe you can!

I made this G.O. that has one page per paragraph. Also to conserve time as we only have a week to write a 5-paragraph essay (AHHHHH!) I have my students write their full sentences in each box instead of just bullets and ideas.

 I have had students tell me that the G.O has made writing less stressful for them since it was so structured and they knew when their paragraph was done after filling in the boxes. My aides and I then can edit right on the Graphic Organizer, and the only time they need another piece of paper is to rewrite their paper (copy with edits) to their final draft! I remember the first time I introduced this to my students in 6^th grade, they said “That’s it? This is so easy!” I giggled because writing is easy, it has the same structure no matter what type of writing you are doing. I was glad that writing had stopped being this big bad monster to my students. ☺

I have seen a huge improvement in students writing and their understanding of what goes into each part of a paper.

I hope this is a helpful resource for you as well, click here for the FREE download. Don't forget to pin, share and repost for all teachers to see and check back soon for more free templates and resources. 

IEP Appointment Log | Free Download

Since becoming a SPED teacher 4 years ago, I have often found managing my IEP caseload and all the meetings very hectic. One thing is for sure: 

If you aren’t an organized person, GET ORGANIZED! 

There is just way too much information and team members to contact not to be. I have had caseloads of 16, 12, 8, and now 30 students so I created this form that I could fill out to help me stay within the law in providing timely reminders for IEP meetings to parents. This is very important to make sure that parents can make the meetings and be a part of their child’s Individualized Education Plan.

In the beginning of the year I fill in the students names and IEP due dates. As the year goes on I can keep track of when things are getting done by filling in the dates of competition. This is a list of all that is required of you as a case manager and is your survival checklist, you never want to have an IEP out of compliance. 

This gives you an easy at a glance record of all your IEP transactions if any one should ever ask or anything ever goes missing.  

Below is a FREE download for you to use, hope it helps keep your work load a little more organized. Just Click Here!